2 REPUBLICANS JOIN STATE SENATE RACE

Hector Gastelum, Xanthi Gionis will take on Ben Hueso

Two Republican challengers are taking on Democratic Assemblyman Ben Hueso in the race for the 40th state Senate District seat left vacant by the election of Juan Vargas to Congress.

Real estate agent Hector Gastelum and former congressional candidate Xanthi Gionis said Tuesday they have collected the signatures and filed the paperwork to appear on the ballot in the San Diego-based district.

Their public candidacies come four weeks before mail ballots go out for the March 12 special election.

Hueso is widely viewed as having the inside track for the seat that has two years remaining in its term. He has more than $130,000 in his campaign account, and Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by more than 65,000 in the district that includes South County, all of Imperial County and a slice of Riverside County.

Gionis, 49, of Chula Vista, ran against Vargas in the June 2012 primary for the 51st Congressional District, placing fourth overall with just under 7 percent of the vote.

She cited reducing burdensome regulations for small business and agriculture as key concerns.

“I want to take an active role in stopping the type of legislation that is a hindrance so employers, employees and families can move forward,” Gionis said Tuesday.

Gastelum, 38, also lives in Chula Vista and is making his first run for public office.

“I’m hoping to catch lightning in a bottle,” he said of the short time frame for the election. “I’m glad it’s a sprint and not a marathon.”

After volunteering for the Carl DeMaio mayoral and Mitt Romney presidential campaigns, Gastelum said he awoke Nov. 7 with “such a sickening feeling for losing.”

“I decided then that if I really want change, it has to start with me,” he said. “We need to bring back prosperity and jobs, and I want to do it for the Republican Party, because I am in touch with those ideals.”

If no one gets a majority of the votes, the top two candidates move on to a May 14 runoff election.

The election is using boundary lines in place before 2011 redistricting because it will decide an unexpired term from the 2010 election. If Hueso prevails, San Diego labor leader Lorena Gonzalez and former Chula Vista City Councilman Steve Castaneda will run for the 80th Assembly District seat he now holds.